Currently available light sets that may be utilized both indoors and out-of-doors are limited. For holiday lighting, one available option for outdoor lighting is a large-bulb incandescent light set. Such light sets are still available on the market and are often necessary where a user wishes to create a bright and dramatic display. One advantage of large-bulb light sets is that they are typically wired in parallel so that failure of a single bulb does not prevent the rest of the strand from lighting. There are, however, numerous disadvantages to this type of light set. Because each bulb in a given string of lights consumes approximately 5 to 10 watts of power, a single string of 25 to 50 bulbs consumes a significant amount of power and can therefore be expensive to light on a regular basis. Additionally, the large-bulb incandescent light sets generate appreciable amounts of heat which can lead to fire hazards. For this reason, large-bulb incandescent light sets are not properly usable indoors. Finally, large-bulb light sets are costly both to purchase and to maintain.
Another option for outdoor lighting available in the current market is known as a miniature incandescent light set. While this type of light set can be used indoors and out-of-doors and is less expensive to purchase and maintain than the large-bulb incandescent light set, there are several drawbacks associated with miniature light sets.
Lamps on miniature light sets may be connected in series and can be extremely difficult to maintain. In some sets, a single burned-out lamp results in an open circuit that prevents operation of other lamps in the strand until the defective lamp is replaced. In newer sets, a shunt may be present to allow current to pass to the rest of the strand even when a bulb burns out, but the shunt does not prevent malfunction of the entire strand where a bulb becomes slightly dislodged from its socket. In that case, the user must locate the loose bulb and either secure or replace it. This may mean systematically checking each lamp on the strand, which can be both time-consuming and frustrating. Most users are likely to conduct such a search while the strand remains plugged into the power source, thereby risking electrical shock. Moreover, the lamps themselves are small, difficult to grasp, difficult to remove, and delicate to handle. Consequently, time spent searching for a defective lamp and the associated risk of injury from shock or from crushing the glass portion of the lamps while removing and replacing them is burdensome at best. Sometimes, entire light sets are often discarded even if only a single lamp is defective, making repeated purchases of conventional decorative light sets less cost effective than their price would indicate.
The lamps in miniature incandescent light sets are typically driven by low voltage alternating current (AC), which is usually achieved through a step-down transformer that converts standard 120 volt AC power to 12 volt AC power. While this reduces potential danger from voltage as compared to the large-bulb incandescent light systems, it also means that a user must have access to an AC outlet, necessarily limiting the use of conventional light sets to certain applications where AC power is convenient.
Further, if multiple extension cords are necessary, a display can quickly become both unattractive and hazardous with respect to circuit overload and fire. Moreover, although miniature light sets allow a user to connect multiple strands of lamps to one another to create longer strands for more extensive applications or for the convenience of avoiding multiple extension cords in a single application, a user is still constrained by high current draws that could overload the circuit and permanently damage the light set.
Another practical problem with miniature light sets is the difficulty of creating dense or intricate light displays because the lamps on miniature light sets have a fixed space, usually 4 to 6 inches or more from one another. In order to create clusters of lights or complex light displays, a user must re-wrap or double back on multiple times to achieve the desired results. This often leads to problems with tangling and breakage, especially if a bulb is loose or needs replacing or if the light strands must be taken down often, such as in a seasonal or temporary applications. Where a user has completed decoration of one portion of an object and has lights on a string which have not been utilized, extending the string to extend the power to the next object removes the ability to eliminate the presence of lights between objects.
A further issue with miniature light sets is the limited range of available light colors. Even assuming that a user might be satisfied with the few lamp colors available on the market for miniature light sets, changing the color scheme on even a single strand of conventional lights is problematic, and more so for multiple strands of lights. Again, because the lights are small, delicate, and difficult to remove and replace, a user is likely to decide against changing color schemes to avoid the extra effort required to change colors. Further, a change in color scheme would require that a user separately purchase as many lamps as he desires to change, since most miniature light sets only come with 2 or 3 extra replacement bulbs. Although the cost of purchasing all-new replacement lamps is not necessarily prohibitive, the difficulty of finding enough replacement lamps in the desired replacement color is often difficult if not impossible. Practically, then, a user is more likely to purchase an entire new light set when new colors are desired, but even then, the selection of available colors remains small.
Similarly, the range of flashing patterns available in miniature lighting systems is narrow. Available options usually only include full-on, twinkling, blinking, chasing, or a few other similar variations. Flashing patterns in miniature light sets are generally pre-set and cannot be overridden or changed by the user. In fact, in many light sets, the user may have only two choices, either full-on or blinking. In the more basic miniature light sets, the blinking pattern is usually be achieved by replacing a regular lamp with a “flasher” lamp containing a bi-metallic strip. The strip responds to the heat of the bulb's filament and either closes or opens the circuit, turning on or off the bulbs, respectively. Unfortunately, the strand will not light at all when the blinker bulb burns out. Because most light sets only come with one flasher or two at most, any defect or damage to the flasher bulb may further limit a user's options with respect to flashing patterns. Even in the more advanced miniature light sets run by a controller, available flashing patterns are usually preset and the selection is limited.
Finally, transitioning from structure to another, when lighting a series of structures is almost always problematic. For example, where a user wishes to frame multiple windows in decorative lights using a conventional light set, the user must either (1) use separate strands with separate extension cords for each window, or (2) use multiple strands connected together and powered by a single extension cord for multiple windows. In the former case, a user must purchase multiple extension cords and is limited by the number of AC power outlets available. In the latter case, a user must move from one window to the next by extending lighted portions of strands between the two windows, thus detracting from the aesthetic quality of the display.
Control protocol is another major problem. The communications highway in any system has a width which is proportional to its length. It is difficult to provide a high level of control in most systems without knowing the size of the system. Systems which have a variable size are almost impossible to provide with distributed control.
What is therefore needed is a modular decorative light system having components which are connectable in parallel, which are capable of efficient arrangement in any number of different configurations, and which have virtually unlimited programmable flashing and color display capabilities. The optimal modular decorative light system should operate safely using low voltage, use little energy, and have an independent power source allowing it to be used without regard to the location of an AC power source, and is simple and cost-effective to use, maintain, and upgrade.